Flower and Garden Show: Designers draw on classics to turn over a new leaf

By Denise Gadd

26 March 2014 — 3:00am

Autumn. The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. A poetic time to seek inspiration at the 19th Flower and Garden Show, which opens on Wednesday in the heritage-listed Carlton Gardens.

This year, 13 designers have used lush floral plantings in a riot of colours from deep red to orange, yellow and rich pastels to create their show gardens. A far cry from the ubiquitous yuccas and cordylines that dominated the horticultural landscape during the dry years. Trees, too, have been used to great effect, with many of them displaying stunning autumn foliage.

Designers Carolyn and Joby Blackman in their library garden.Credit:Justin McManus

Carolyn and Joby Blackman, from Vivid Design, have created The Gardener's Library based on the words of Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero: ''If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.''

The result is an English-built conservatory housing a traditional library complete with books, terrariums, botanic prints by Craig Lidgerwood and a wingback chair from where one can admire the elegant clipped, pleached small-leafed lime trees (Tilia cordata "Greenspire"), in front of a carpet of giant, bright red geraniums flanking a steel water feature and beyond the ''imagined'' driveway, a flower border evocative of a traditional English garden in a palette of harmonious shades.

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In the words of Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero: 'If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.'Credit:Justin McManus

Copses of crepe myrtles and silver birches encompass a small seat, whittled by Joby Blackman, the perfect retreat to sit and read a book.

Espaliered olives and rosemary are planted at the library entrance and on the side a stand of ''Autumn blaze'' acers, the red/orange foliage a testament to this glorious season. A stonemason has inscribed Cicero's immortal words in a plaque which takes centre stage in the bluestone ''driveway''.

The Blackmans chose plants that are both beautiful to look at, and hardy, a must for the Australian climate.

Trees, too, play an important part in the overall design. ''Trees are very important in home gardens, however small,'' Carolyn Blackman says. ''We need to put trees back into gardening otherwise it will be catastrophic for the environment.''

The garden, built by Semken Landscaping, has been designed for a collective of independent nurseries ''where you can't buy a hammer or a stepladder''. The conservatory, made by Mervyn Montgomery from Hampton Conservatories in England, was shipped out in pieces.

The Blackmans needed someone to assemble it and Mr Montgomery suggested his son Lindsey, who is in Melbourne at the moment. ''It's helped us out and given him some holiday money,'' the Blackmans said.

The Blackmans - along with best in show garden winner Mark Browning from Cycas Landscape Design - are the recipients of a gold show garden award for their Gardener’s Library.

Lisa Ellis won first place in the Boutique Gardens category for The Midnight Garden which was created in conjunction with the Astronomical Society of Victoria.